“Instead of driving around in circles on an ideological cul-de-sac, we need a Party whose brand of conservatism invites and inspires new people to visit us.”

Exactly one year ago, the Republican National Committee completed a four-month period of self-reflection after losing its second-straight presidential election. The result of that process became popularly known as the GOP “Autopsy Report” – an analysis of all of the Republican Party’s ailments, and prescriptions for how to cure them. In a moment of rare self-awareness, Republican leaders admitted that the party was alienating huge swaths of voters. Party operatives wrote about the need to reach out to communities of color, be more inclusive of gay Americans, and attract more women to the party. For nearly one hundred pages, they tried to convey the message, “We get it.” But a year later, all the Republican Party has gotten is a year older. What the GOP has offered over the past year to solve their problems is simply a change in tactics. They’ve hired “outreach staff” and placed them in communities they’ve never been in before – but is it effective outreach if their agenda keeps alienating those communities? Or if they keep making it harder for these communities to even vote in elections? They’re conducting “candidate trainings” to teach them how to talk to (and about) women – but what is the right way to explain a candidate is against equal pay or wants to make health care decisions for American women? They’ve worked to shorten their primary calendar and limit debates – but do they truly believe that limiting the number of people who hear their agenda makes it less divisive? In the report, the RNC wrote, “We have become expert in how to provide ideological reinforcement to like-minded people, but devastatingly we have lost the ability to be persuasive with, or welcoming to, those who do not agree with us on every issue.” One year later, the American people agree even more than they did then -- in 2013 Republican Party identification reached a 25-year low. And it’s no wonder. The GOP has failed to change their actions or tone from the party that in 2012 told immigrants they should “self deport” and women that they had the ability to “shut that whole thing down” when raped. In the past year, we’ve heard Republican leaders and operatives call women candidates an “empty dress,” talk about women’s libidos, and – once again – try to downplay abuse. We’ve heard them use derogatory terms to describe Latino immigrants; insulting stereotypes for African-Americans; and gay Americans have faced outright discrimination from Republicans at all levels – from state party chairmen to candidates to presidential hopefuls.

Their failure to rebrand hasn’t been limited just to their disrespectful and insulting rhetoric – they continue to push an agenda that divides Americans and limits their ability to be treated equally and fight for the same economic opportunity as others. In other words, they’re no different today than they were then. They may have set out to become a party that is more “inclusive and welcoming,” but in reality the GOP has moved in the opposite direction. They continue to alienate large communities of Americans with rhetoric and policy that divides us and is simply outside of the mainstream

The biggest problem for the Republican Party has never been its primary calendar, its campaign tactics, or a lack of trainings. Their biggest problem is who they are, what they believe, what they say, and how they govern.

In contrast, Democrats have spent the year building on a foundation of outreach rooted in our core values and an agenda based on equal opportunity. President Obama and Democrats have pushed for equal pay for women because we know that when women succeed, America succeeds. We push for full equality for all Americans, regardless of where they live, what they look like, or who they love. We continue to push for commonsense immigration reform, which is the right thing to do for our economy and our country. And we continue to push an economic agenda that simply levels the playing field so that every American has a chance to move up the economic ladder. Republicans will continue to tout new programs that they hope will put a band-aid over their weaknesses but we will use our programs and tools to amplify our strengths, empower our grassroots, and ensure Democrats up and down the ballots have the tools and resources they need to win – and that we can expand opportunity for

all

Americans.

MIDDLE CL SS

In 2012, Republicans came up short at the ballot box in large part because their message did not speak to middle class Americans. Republicans up and down the ballot advocated policies, like the Ryan Budget, that favored the wealthiest Americans over middle class families and those trying to climb into the middle class. The presidential campaign was also marked by several candid moments revealing the GOP’s complete detachment, and often disrespect, for middle class America - the most famous of course was Mitt Romney’s 47% remark – a moment that perfectly encapsulated the larger Republican problem with appealing to the middle class. After losses up and down the ballot on Election Day 2012, the GOP promised next time would be different. The Autopsy Report explains, “the Republican Party must be the champion of those who seek to climb the economic ladder of life. Low-income Americans are hard-working people who want to become hard-working middle-income Americans.” But in the year since releasing the report, Republicans have not only failed to increase their appeal to middle class Americans, they have further alienated them by blocking progress on many commonsense measures that would help the middle class. It’s not hard to see why 52 percent of Americans view Democrats as more “concerned with the needs of people like me,” compared to only 32 percent for Republicans.